Controling our Drinking

[seabeard9]

“The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.” Big Book-Ch. 3: More About Alcoholism P30
This says it all. I remember when I read this line for the first time. Attempting to control my drinking was what I had been doing unsuccessfully for years. I didn’t realize that other people did that, or that it made me an abnormal drinker.
More from Big Book-Ch. 3: More About Alcoholism P30 We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals-usually brief-were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization.
Controlling our drinking is mentioned 26 more times:
• Big Book-Doctor’s Opinion Pxxiv – In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe-that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.

[deanb]

the night of my last drunk, I remember telling my wife (that I had walked out on the same week our second child was born), that my drinking had gotten ‘out of control’. for over two years I went to meetings saying I wasn’t an alcoholic. then the day came that I wanted to drink. I paced the floor like a caged animal until I knew he bars were closed. for some reason I opened the Big Book. it opened to the Third Chapter and the third paragraph jumped out at me. ‘We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control.’ that passage saved my life. it’s a good thing I did not read further. if I had read the next page, ‘We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself: Step over to the nearest barroom and try a little controlled drinking.’, I may not be here today.

[aamakesmesmile]

Not only could I not control my drinking, it was the rest of my life. The Big book says in how it works that …our lives had become unmanageable. – …we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. And the twelve and twelve sums up my agony on p 53 As we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. I foughgt to control the world and all in it and crashed miserably into the abyss of loneliness and self-despair. My stinking thing led to a stinking life. AA taught me to “resign” as God and I now when tempted to overmanage things places and people around me constantly remind myself by playing those tapes of the consequences of my past actions in this area that were4 hard to take, impossible to deal with, just made me a drunk. Now I have been taught that I can’t manage or control my life much less the rest of the world whether I am drunk or sober. What a relief.

[Author]

Posts